Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that members of her own department secretly installed spyware on government-issued devices used by Trump administration officials, including her phone and laptop.
Speaking on the “PBD Podcast,” Noem said outside technology experts — including Elon Musk and members of his team — helped identify what she described as unauthorized surveillance software embedded on devices assigned to political appointees. She said the discovery came after external specialists examined DHS hardware and flagged suspicious software activity.
“I can’t believe what I found since I’ve been in this department. I just found the other day a whole room on this campus that was a secret skiff secure facility that had files nobody knew existed,” Noem said. “So we just happened to have an employee walk by a door and wonder what it was and started asking questions. We went in there. There was individuals working there that had secret files that nobody knew about on some of these most controversial topics like that, and now I’ve got that turned over to attorneys, and we’re getting to the bottom of what exactly happened there.”
In a post on X, Noem reiterated that DHS staff had installed surveillance software on devices used by her and other political appointees and that officials discovered secure rooms containing previously undisclosed files, which have since been turned over to attorneys.
Noem also said she has begun reviewing extensive records maintained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as well as information from national laboratories under DHS jurisdiction.
“We have CBP, which is Customs and Border Protection. They know every traveler that comes into this country, every good that comes in. They’re the ones who assess and collect all of the tariffs,” Noem said. “But the information that they had on travelers that came in during COVID — what our national labs, which I also have under my jurisdiction — they’re scientists that participated with that Wuhan lab, how they were traveling back and forth between each other and working on those experiments. It’s been eye-opening.”
Noem credited Musk and his team with helping uncover the alleged surveillance.
“Even from the time I came into this office, Elon and his team were extremely helpful to me,” she said. “They helped me identify that some of my own employees in my department had downloaded software on my phone and my laptop to spy on me to record our meetings.”
According to Noem, several political appointees had similar software installed on their government-issued devices and the monitoring could have continued without outside assistance.
Noem said she plans to continue partnering with private technology companies and outside experts to modernize the department’s systems, arguing that DHS had fallen behind.
“Many times in government, and especially in this department, which was extremely neglected, we were just behind and not up to the standard we should be at,” she said. “I remember the first four months I couldn’t even send a PowerPoint over email from the Department of Homeland Security servers that was longer than six pages long.”
The secretary said she believes the department’s previous approach to security was flawed and suggested the issue extends beyond DHS.
“So the backwards thinking of protecting our country was extremely detrimental to keeping us safe,” Noem said. “What I tell people most of the time is I always believed when people talked about the deep state before, that it existed. I never would have dreamed that it was as bad as it is.”
Noem did not provide specific evidence publicly detailing the alleged spyware or identify the employees involved. It remains unclear whether any internal investigation or inspector general review has been formally launched.
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If true they need to be in prison, not a smack on the hands
When is anyone ever going to be arrested for spying on the Trump administration.?